» A chicane will be added to the Mistral Straight for the 2017 race. It's thought that the increased power of the LMP2 cars is the catalyst for the decision.

» 35 cars on the entry list, 1 down from the Red Bull Ring. 6 in GTE-Am, 17 in LMP3 and down to 12 from 13 in LMP2.

» The missing car from LMP2 is the Tockwith Motorsports Ligier. After the bizarre disagreement involving a music video filming, Phil Hanson decided to end his association with TMS.

» Ryo Hirakawa still does not appear on the entry list. The Japanese driver was replaced by DragonSpeed sporting director Nicolas Minassian for the Red Bull Ring, as Hirakawa was busy in Super GT. Minassian is listed in the car with Rojas and Roussel for Paul Ricard.

» The championship fight is close at the front with G-Drive by DragonSpeed on 62 points, leading United Autosports by 4. High Class Racing are third with 34, meaning 3 different chassis in the top 3 championship positions.

» Showing that the Red Bull Ring return was not a one off, SMP are fielding a Dallara P217 again. Egor Orudzhev and Matevos Issakyan will pilot the car again.

» The United Autosports disqualification from the Red Bull Ring puts them on level pegging with Ultimate for the LMP3 Teams Championship at 45 points each.

» Duqueine Engineering will enter 2 Norma M30s in the Paul Ricard event, dropping the Ligier JSP3 completely. The Norma has been the surprise of the LMP3 field, being fast everywhere it runs. Paul Ricard will see 4 Norma's in the main event.

» The gap at the head of the GTE championship is just 6 points. With only 2 cars really in contention at this point TF Sport Aston Martin leads the JMW Ferrari 488.

The LMP2s are all in the high downforce kit (not allowed to run low downforce outside of Le Mans), so they should be more equal here. What it will do is bring the Ligier closer to the Norma in the LMP3 class. The Norma top speed advantage is sizeable, so it would've ran off and hid. It'll be interesting!

There have been off-tracks moments, but none of the ridiculous 10-meters-outside-of-the-track stuff that we usually see in the Blancpain or GTOpen races.
Maybe the type of course is helping this cause, too.

At the moment we have a nameless driver in the #11 Eurointernational LMP3.

There have been off-tracks moments, but none of the ridiculous 10-meters-outside-of-the-track stuff that we usually see in the Blancpain or GTOpen races.
Maybe the type of course is helping this cause, too.

At the moment we have a nameless driver in the #11 Eurointernational LMP3.

Maybe it's a Roborace prototype.

Enjoying this race much more than I normally enjoy a Paul Ricard event. Also enjoying SMP up at the front for something different.

And because they are running 2 silver drivers, they have almost no driver time limits?

I really hope they can finally get a win.
Not only for SMP itself, but also for Dallara.

Yeah, but watch the 22 G-Drive car. The silver they have is Roussel, and he's stupidly fast. The weak link in the 22 is Rojas and he's done his stint. If SMP change tyres next stop (which they'll have to do), G-Drive could double stint and maybe get up there.

Yeah, but watch the 22 G-Drive car. The silver they have is Roussel, and he's stupidly fast. The weak link in the 22 is Rojas and he's done his stint. If SMP change tyres next stop (which they'll have to do), G-Drive could double stint and maybe get up there.

Yes but Roussel is in now (again, after doing the start). I don't think he'll stay in until the end?